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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23663584">To Hell With Your Stories</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EireneShulah/pseuds/EireneShulah'>EireneShulah</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Re:Make - You're (Certainly) Not Alone [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Gen, Zack and Gen talk literary theory, and if game goes meta then why not characters, because life is a story, mention of suicide, of sorts, remake ending spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:00:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,398</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23663584</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EireneShulah/pseuds/EireneShulah</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack and Genesis meet after the ending of the FF7:Remake and talk about stories.<br/>Also present: feelings, deep-seated guilt and how even do you talk to people when you are probably a socially trained neurodivergent?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angeal Hewley &amp; Genesis Rhapsodos &amp; Sephiroth &amp; Cloud Strife, Zack Fair &amp; Genesis Rhapsodos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Re:Make - You're (Certainly) Not Alone [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728199</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To Hell With Your Stories</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>They quote my own translation of Loveless (see end note if interested). The official one is very, very sad and doesn't get even close to original...which is as much an inspiration for this work as Remake is.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>We hate an enemy and then we cry in pain, we wound them and then are left alone - and thus you flow still, o stream of time,</em> Genesis mused, watching Cloud and his friends from far above. </p><p> </p><p>A sorry crowd they were, talking so proudly of changing course of history while their hearts were still the same, their desires the same, their fears the same.</p><p>Still nothing on their mind but common foe.</p><p>They changed once, he knew. They had learnt. He's never thought just how much they'd learnt and changed before he met them here and now, in this crazy second chance of a world.</p><p>Then, they were heroes - those who would heal this world, those who were able to offer pity, not hatred to their enemies. Pity unwanted and unaccepted, at times, yet no less sincere. No less valuable--he learnt to value it, Puppy taught him. <em>Do not scorn pity that is the gift of gentle heart</em>... though that one was from some book, most likely; Puppy was definitely not the one to use such words as "gentle heart".</p><p>(Funny thing, he was so used to calling him Puppy he never switched mentally to "Zack" or "Fair" or anything. Or maybe it was his quiet way to state that not some great legendary SOLDIER Zack Fair became a hero, but Puppy. The excitable, unflinchingly loyal dreamer, the ever ready to go extra mile for anyone in need Puppy, the Angeal's student. That was something he really wanted to discuss with Cloud sometime when they'd grow closer...not that there was any chance now.)</p><p>Cloud he knew was the guy to begrudgingly offer his helping hand to Sephiroth lookalike Genesis was back then (he always cringed at this; he was the model, after all, the prototype...not that it mattered much, but still, it was question of basic dignity). Offer his helping hand once and and then cut off any personal interaction until further notice, and Vincent of all people was easier to make company with, but still. It counted.</p><p>(If not for Cloud, Weiss would be gone. Was Weiss even alive now? Or, rather and more to the point: was there Weiss now at all?)</p><p>This Cloud... <em>The soul that hoped is now withered</em>, Genesis thought seeing the boy speak to Aerith. Angeal's sword was a mockery in this Cloud's hands: bearer of hope wielded by one with no hope but only fear. Not that the boy was not generally a caricature, child's impression of a tough SOLDIER-turned-merc guy, no-nonsense and all that. </p><p>***</p><p>"He's not that bad, y'know?", a voice came from behind. "Just...confused".</p><p>Familiar voice, at that.</p><p>"Zachary Fair, I presume?", he asked, voice not trembling, not at all.</p><p>And familiar face, after all those years, still as if they parted yesterday. Not really smiling, but somehow bright all the same.</p><p>What do people do when they see dead friends alive and well? Dead enemies who offered them pity and salvation? Dead heroes? People they parted with on very uncertain terms, seeing them off to very certain doom? (And he knew it was certain doom, and should've done more...)</p><p>"That's me all right", Puppy said.</p><p>"We are some two or three hundred feet above ground, Fair. And I at least have a wing to explain it"</p><p>"Weird".</p><p>"And you look as if you've just met a throng of very unfriendly Wutaiin ninjas", Genesis noted. (Voice still absolutely not trembling.)</p><p>Puppy beamed at him.</p><p>"You sound like you're going to tell me to behave myself and do my hair, or what stuff those lady relatives say to bratty kids", smile faded momentarily. "It was ShinRa, whole host. Lost count of them, just... swung my sword, threw spells, swung some more...and then there were none."</p><p>Puppy didn't just seem as if they parted yesterday. He was right from that yesterday. And it was...</p><p>"<em>Let tomorrow lack any promise</em>", and now, just now, voice betrayed him at last.<em> Still you have returned</em>, he wanted to finish yet could only muster a very indignant sob.</p><p>Strangely, Puppy didn't push him away.</p><p>"You know", he said slowly. Not as a parenthesis, but as a statement. "Didn't think you'd care. Of all people..."</p><p>You were Angeal's Puppy? Not right.</p><p>You saved me? Still, not right.</p><p>"You may not believe me, Zachary Fair, but you were...are my friend", he spoke at last.</p><p>"With friends like these..."</p><p>Fair point. (It would've been a nice pun, under different circumstances.)</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>Discussion evidently adjourned, Genesis turned to fly...somewhere, because any place was as good for him as any other. Meaning: any place would be just as bad.</p><p>"Hey... whatsit... are you flying, friend? Nothing but cruelty awaits you, or something", Puppy called. </p><p>So many emotions. Ever since...forever had he not cried and laughed at the same time.</p><p>"What? I've actually read that book of yours! Tseng thought it may be useful to track you. Have you seen Tseng? He's just not himself, it's creepy".</p><p>"He's not, true". </p><p>"Never thought when Mom said I'd sit on clouds when I'm dead was... well..."</p><p>"Don't sit on Clouds. He won't like it. Besides, using troopers as furniture is Scarlet's thing", it was a bad pun and worse joke but he always turned to bad attempts at humour when he didn't know what to say.</p><p>Now, that is. It used to be insults, self-insults and barbs only he would think were friendly. Not since Nebelheim, though.</p><p>"And you are not dead. You've survived."</p><p>"Yeah...but I remember how I had not. Strange, huh? And there's Spikey who is not himself, and Tseng who is...well, who the heck even <em>is</em> he? And I'm here far above with you, not very much an alive thing. Not like you could explain it all but I can't stand silence, y'know?"</p><p>"I'm at least better than nothing, then? Reassuring. Funny thing though: I can actually explain quite a bit. Mostly because I am...being left out of this".</p><p>"Being left out? Of what?"</p><p>"A story. Because it's different kind of story now, not the one it was..."</p><p>Puppy rolled his eyes.</p><p>"Already bored? And you didn't even sit through one my lection on literature, Fair", he teased, as he would tease his friends.</p><p>Old friends. He was not even sure new ones were friends, at that. More like "benefactors and occasionally talk partners".</p><p>"I've had five!", he protested. "As a cadet".</p><p>"Then brace yourself for one more. You asked a question, I'm giving an answer the way I can give it".</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>Puppy started doing his usual thing. To cope with the incoming bore, apparently? Genesis never thought of his lectures as boring, but others did and now he accepted it as a sad fact. </p><p>"Okay, you do. But what has all this stuff about stories to do with it?"</p><p>"Everything is a story. Life is a story. Death. Past and future--all that, a story. And each story has its rules, you know? If you started with a princess in a tower, either one must come down, because otherwise there would be no story. If three brothers set out on a journey, the eldest must fail and the youngest becomes a hero"</p><p>"That's your Loveless, isn't it? Eldest captured, youngest a hero. That much I remember".</p><p>"There's no eldest or youngest in Loveless, but you're on the right track. You see, once our story was this old tale of three brothers, only with a twist where the eldest learns from his failure, and the youngest falls from grace because he's started a hero. Also, because the initial reading is plain wrong and the set of brothers...or friends, for that matter...is different".</p><p>"And you're meaning?"</p><p>"I mean in fact we both are just elder brothers in a tale of Cloud the Unlikely Hero. Spoken with no enmity, mind you; I've long since abandoned my jealousy".</p><p>"Because of... stories stuff?"</p><p>"Partly. Mostly because you aren't a hero as long as you vie to be one".</p><p>"So, Cloud is the hero. And the villain? Not you, you've nothing to do with him".</p><p>"Not that hopeless, I see. Yes, in the real tale Sephiroth is the villain. Mostly because he starts as hero, and there's to be a journey of some kind"</p><p>"And if you start at the top, you can only go down?"</p><p>"Or learn to fly, but scarce a story tells of this...well, I digress. Our story. I had a place in it, once. As an eldest, I failed and learned my lesson while our hero failed to learn his. I became your enemy you saved, because it's something heroes do. And for Cloud I was a reminder why he is a hero: because where I snapped, he endured; where I only hated, he at least tried to love..."</p><p> </p><p>"That's three stories. And you sound as if I did nothing and it was all written for me".</p><p>"Not quite. On both counts. It's one story, it just has three acts, as any self-respecting story would. And you did everything, my friend--that is precisely why you even are a hero!"</p><p>"Like, we do what we do, and if it's real stuff, we are a story?"</p><p>"Something like that. No one is destined to be a hero, a villain...but we take on those roles and sometimes we even fit. And when we don't, we fall into some other roles, because the stories were there long before we are."</p><p>"Okay, okay, stories are great and all, you can't escape a story. So like, first act: there's you three and then you go crazy and Seph is nice, but you get better but he gets worse? That one I get."</p><p>"That's second act, where one Zachary Fair proves that being a hero is not about grand deeds, but about integrity and virtue. Or, as you'd put it, about following your heart, dreams and honor of a SOLDIER. First act is where a hopeless fool by the name of Genesis thinks that becoming a hero is besting someone in a fight, while true hero Sephiroth displays remarkable humility and flawless friendship even while rightfully lauded for his grand deeds".</p><p>"To think you aren't sarcastic now..."</p><p>"We all change. Besides, I am a man of literature, and it's a story I analyse. A fool is a fool and a hero is a hero, Fair. People may lie to us, appearances may. But not stories".</p><p>"Then the third act...Cloud has to be both, right? Because we're heroes, but he's the hero?"</p><p>"Right on point. Without our stories, his fight is just that: a fight. It may be enough for a blockbuster, mind you. But a true story needs more than that. It needs depth. Without you...even without me, however funny it may be--his story doesn't truly live. Or rather, his Unlikely Hero Cloud story, where he may discard Angeal's sword, but not what it represents".</p><p>Puppy did some more squats. Then frowned.</p><p>"It's like it's not that story anymore"</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>Genesis smiled. Sadly and wistfully, because however harsh that story was to him, he loved it. He thought of writing it down--in a proper way, with poetry and romance and redemption in the end because the story will be real good only when The Hero restores The Fallen One to grace. </p><p>He only waited for it to happen in real life. Because Cloud was the one to heal the world as befits a hero. Because he hated loose ends in his reading, and that Nebelheim conversation was definitely a loose end. They had to meet again, and talk again...and yes, this time Seph will just have to take the apple, because one just can't argue with laws of narrative consistency.</p><p>But that story was no more--forever without a proper ending, just like "Loveless"--it existed, or not existed, somewhere in a different world with no Midgar.</p><p>Their present story, though...</p><p>"It's a tale of fate now, not of heroes", he explained. "Different theme requires different structuring and different narrative roles. Basically, no one truly matters any more on their own, not even Cloud".</p><p>"Then what does?"</p><p>"The plot", he answered, not without bile. "Just how much you can change the plot, how many possible outcomes there are...that stuff".</p><p>"And I am a... possible outcome? That's why I'm alive, but not quite?"</p><p>He nodded.</p><p>"And you?"</p><p>"And I'm just...over there. I could have been, you see. But story, this story, doesn't really need me. You are important enough, because at least you gave Cloud his life and his sword. But does it really matter who that sword used to belong to? Or if that shadow-figure-we-can-change-future Sephiroth had any friends? If his start of darkness was an idiot trying to beg for help and save his pride at the same time, failing in both?.."</p><p>He silenced himself. </p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>"You want to talk to him, do you?", Puppy asked.</p><p>"Badly".</p><p>They sat in silence for a while.</p><p>"You know, Gen...", apparently they were truly friends now. Well, it sounded better than "Seph". "To hell with your stories. This is Angeal's sword". </p><p><em>This is Angeal's dream</em>, was what he said. His dream of honor beyond reproach and friendship stronger than any evil.</p><p> </p><p>"To hell with possible outcomes, too. Unless it means that nobody dies now, because this one, I stan very much. Speaking of Angeal."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"Don't tell me you don't want to stick his bloody honor where it hurts and beat it into his head that suicide is, like, never an option when you have friends who need you".</p><p>"I was beyond furious", he admitted. "Beyond furious and thoroughly in the despaired territory."</p><p>"And Seph deserves better. What with that village he's burnt down? Haven't we all? He's just apologize, is all. Okay, profusely apologize."</p><p>"He killed Tifa's parents. And Cloud's"</p><p>"Bullshit. Most likely, ShinRa did it. I can't imagine Seph both speeding on to meet his imaginary Mom and running around killing parents. Can you?"</p><p>"Thought the same, but both kids were fairly...insistent".</p><p>"You don't know insistent before you talk with me. I made you reconsider, after all. No mean feat".</p><p>They were in silence for some more, and then Puppy concluded, with a flourish"</p><p>"And let the next day lack all promise, we're here to stay is what I say. Do you?"</p><p>Genesis smiled and nodded.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When the fighting beasts bring about the end of the world,<br/>Then spreading her wings of light and darkness<br/>The Goddess alights from the sombre sky<br/>With the Gift that can guide us to happiness.</p><p>I.<br/>And the Goddess's gift is an abyss of mystery<br/>We took to the sky to look for<br/>Thrusting into the ripples raising<br/>On the waters of wandering soul.<br/>On the battlefield, three friend there were:<br/>One has been captured,<br/>One has flown away<br/>For the last one to become a hero.</p><p>II.<br/>The soul that hoped is now withered,<br/>Its honor awaste<br/>And its wings that once flew are broken.<br/>You the one who has boundless bliss<br/>Beloved of the Goddess<br/>The one who will heal this world<br/>As befits a hero.</p><p>III.<br/>- Are you flying my friend<br/>To the world that hates us both?<br/>The cruel morrow is all that awaits you.<br/>- Let tomorrow lack any promise<br/>But the wind that raises the waves -<br/>Still I will return to your place.</p><p>IV.<br/>- My ill-fated friend,<br/>You who's lost all dreams and honor,<br/>Like an arrow already shot from the Goddess's bow!<br/>Ask my friend,<br/>And the life-giving Gift of the Goddess<br/>Will be handed now.<br/>- You offer the end of the world<br/>That's like wind at the waters no one knows,<br/>So tender yet so unavoidable.</p><p>V.<br/>Let tomorrow lack any promise,<br/>Still I will return to your place<br/>To become a drop of our star's hope.<br/>At the edge of the earth, at the heaven's end,<br/>By the faraway waters no one knows<br/>I offer myself as secret sacrifice.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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